05. Using the Free Text Question Type

Introduction

Free Text questions are ideal for open questions or questions that you can expect a great variety of answer (such as names). TaroWorks allows the user to collect both short text (up to 255 characters) and long text answers (up to 32,768 characters).

This document will detail how to add a Free Text Question to your survey and how to answer it in the device.

How to Add a Free Text Question

Edit an existing draft survey or start a new one. Go to the Question Builder tab.

On the left margin, click Free Text (red arrow) to add the question to the bottom, or click and drag it to insert into your survey.

You may choose from short text or long text by using the Type dropdown (red box).

Enter a Caption. Add Supporting text and check Required as desired.

Click Save to save the section.

Scoring

Scoring is not available for Free Text questions.

Logic

You can set show/hide logic for a Free Text question as normal.

A Free Text question can be used as condition for other questions. Your options are:

Answered / not answered; and,

Does the entered value exactly match / not match your given string of text.

Field Mapping

For Short Free Text, the compatible field types for mapping are:

Text;

Text Area;

Long Text Area;

Rich Text Area; and,

Autonumber

For Long Free Text, the compatible field types for mapping are:

Text Area;

Long Text Area; and,

Rich Text Area

If the text field you mapped to have a character limit (eg. 140 characters), then the published surveys will also restrict you to 140 characters. However, note that if you change the limit after publishing the survey, the restriction will still stay the same as when you published the survey.